United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’s country representative Neil Wright has assured the provincial government that Afghan refugees living in the province will return to their homeland by the end of 2012.
He said this during at meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah held on Wednesday at the Chief Minister’s House.
Afghan Refugees Rehabilitation Center (ARRC) Commissioner Agha Jan Akhtar, Sindh Agriculture Secretary and Secretary to Chief Minister Alamdin Bullo were also present at the meeting.
According to an official handout, the chief minister discussed the matter of refugees residing in Pakistan, and said that there are over 3 million refugees in Pakistan out of which 200,000 Afghans are living in the Sindh province and the provincial government is looking after them.
He said that the Afghan refugees are mainly residing in and around Karachi in camps, and the federal government should provide more assistance in this regard.
Well-placed sources told Pakistan Today that the Sindh chief minister had expressed strong reservations about the presence of Afghan refugees in the province.
“Sindh is facing the [financial] burden of Afghan refugees for years, but the federal government is not issuing sufficient funding to the province,” Shah said. “We are taking care of them but not getting our due share from the centre.”
Assuring that the problem of refugees will be resolved soon, the official of UN’s refugee agency stated that the Afghan refugees will return home by the end of December next year.
The sources said that at least 0.5 million Afghan refugees are living in the city of Karachi out of which only 0.2 million are registered.
